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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPG
    6. Convert PDF to PNG
    7. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    8. File format options for PDF export
    9. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

Before you begin

We're rolling out a new, more intuitive product experience. If the screen shown here doesn’t match your product interface, select help for your current experience.

In the new experience, the tools appear on the left side of the screen.

Ensure that Acrobat is installed on your computer, otherwise, the Adobe PDF printer or the Save As Adobe PDF option won't appear. Don’t have Acrobat? Try Acrobat for free.

Video (03:34) | Contributers: lynda.com, Claudia McCue

Save a file as PDF (Windows)

  1. Open a file in a Windows application.

  2. Press Ctrl + P to print.

  3. Choose Adobe PDF as the printer in the Print dialog box.

    To customize the Adobe PDF printer setting, select the Properties (or Preferences) button. (In some applications, you may have to select Setup in the Print dialog box to open the list of printers, and then select Properties or Preferences.)

  4. Select Print. Type a name for your file, and select Save.

For more information on Adobe PDF printer settings, see Using the Adobe PDF printer.

Save a file as PDF (macOS)

The Adobe PDF printer is not available on Mac. However, you can use the Save As Adobe PDF option to print a file to PDF on Mac.

Note:

In macOS Mojave (v10.14), when you try to print a document to PDF using the System Print Dialog > Save As Adobe PDF, the following error message is displayed: "This workflow contains the action Save As Adobe PDF, which is provided by a third party. Third-party actions must be explicitly enabled."

To resolve this error, see Error in saving as Adobe PDF | macOS Mojave 10.14.

  1. Open a file in a macOS application.

  2. Select the PDF button and choose Save As Adobe PDF.

  3. Choose the Adobe PDF Settings and select Continue.

  4. Type a name for your file, and select Save.

Windows Protected Print Mode support in Acrobat PDF printer

The new Acrobat PDF printer supports Windows Protected Print Mode (WPP), ensuring you benefit from advanced security measures while maintaining robust PDF printing capabilities.  WPP is a powerful feature designed to enhance the security and efficiency of printing processes in Windows.

With the introduction of a new Virtual Printer Architecture based on the Print Support App (PSA), Adobe Acrobat users can enjoy a safer and more reliable printing experience. The new Acrobat PDF printer integrated with WPP provides advanced security features while preserving the functionality and quality of your documents.

Enable WPP mode in Windows

  1. Select Settings > Printers & Scanners.

  2. Under the Printer Preference section, enable WPP.

  3. Confirm the warning prompt to remove the old driver and install the new Adobe PDF Printer driver.

    The new Adobe PDF Printer is added to your printers, allowing you to continue using it as before.

WPP mode enabled in printer settings and Adobe PDF printer installed

To switch back to the legacy v3 Adobe PDF Printer driver:

  1. Select Settings > Printers & Scanners.

  2. Under the Printer Preference section, disable WPP.

  3. Confirm the warning prompt to uninstall the new driver and reinstall the legacy PDF Printer driver.

Exclusions

The new Adobe PDF Printer under WPP does not support the following capabilities:

  • Add button next to the Adobe PDF Page Size dropdown for custom page sizes
  • The Rotated Landscape option under the Layouts in Adobe PDF Printing Preferences
  • Advanced button in the Layouts in Adobe PDF Printing Preferences
  • System font settings

Supported Acrobat versions 

The Adobe PDF printer, which supports WPP Mode, is available in Acrobat for the following versions:

  • DC Continuous version 24.003.20180 and above
  • Classic 2024 version 24.001.30213 and above
  • Classic 2020 version 20.005.30730 and above

If you are using an Acrobat version that does not have Adobe PDF printer support for WPP, update to the latest version of Acrobat, and then you can enable WPP.  If you enabled WPP but can’t update to the latest version, disable WPP and then repair the application to continue using the legacy PDF Printer.

Note:

If the Adobe PDF Printer isn’t visible or working after you enable or disable WPP, try repairing Acrobat. To repair Acrobat, select  Help > Repair installation.

If that doesn’t fix the issue, select Settings > Printers & Scanners and repair the Adobe PDF Printer. This should resolve most problems and ensure smooth, secure printing with WPP enabled.

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